Review: 4641 Speedboat

[buddy]

Review: 4641 Speedboat

Name: 4641 Speedboat

Theme: City (Harbour)

Year: 2011

Pieces: 34

Minifigs: 1

Price: £3.99/$4.99

This is my second review on Eurobricks, so any constructuive criticism and feedback would be welcomed, so that my future reviews can be better and of a higher level.

This morning I went to my local TRU, and they had all of the new City harbour sets available, so I purchased 4641 and 4642.

Product Description

Master the waves with the ultra fast LEGO City Speed Boat (4641)! Get ready for the ride of your life when the Speed Boat commands the water! Strap on the sailor's life jacket and head out for a day of fast-paced fun. Whether you're entering the Speed Boat competition or just out for a breezy ride cruising around the lake, the speed boat will take you everywhere you want to go!

Now to the review!

Box and contents

The box uses bright colours, with the boat on the ocean with the Lego City skyline behind.

Box front and back:

Box Side:

Box Contents:

Box contents with opened bags:

When you open the box, there is a single instruction manual, three large parts that aren't in bags and two bags with parts in.

Instructions:

They have the same image on the cover as the one on the box.

Random instructions page:

Page in the back showing a harbour scene/diorama using all of the new harbour sets:

As you can see, the instructions have the normal light blue background, as they always use on City sets and the colours are easy to distinguish.

Minifig

The minifig in this set has an Octan Torso and life jacket, with the usual printed head with sunglasses and a blue cap. There is no back or leg printing on the minifig.

Minifig without life jacket on (front and back):

Minifig with life jacket on (front and back):

Build

The speedboat is a quick and non-challenging build, with just fifteen steps.

New/Interesting pieces:

There is two or the molded big aeroplane parts, a 4 x 6 and a 1 x 6 plate with slope parts, a Trans-Black windscreen, a 'cheese grater' part in both red and black (black not pictured) and a 1 x 2 brick with stud on both sides.

After step 4:

After step 8:

After step 12:

After step 15:

The complete set

Extra part:

Just one lonely white cheese slope!

My Ratings:

Minifig: 6/10

The minifig is alright but doesn't have any new or interesting parts, but it does the job it was made for well.

Parts: 7/10

The parts in this set are good, but there aren't any new ones.

Build/Design: 9/10

The design is good, and it looks good from most angles. To improve, it could have more detail, such a seat for the minifig.

Playability: 6/10

The playability is good, children can push the boat around on surfaces, bu the playability for children is less, becuase the boat doesn't float in real water, because of the brick-built hull.

Price: 10/10 Great value for money, the boat is quite big considering the price of the set.

Overall: 38/50 A great little set!

Thanks for reading.

~buddy~

Edited April 30, 2011 by Zorbas
Indexed

[The Yellow Brick]

Thanks for the review Buddy

I'm still waiting for the harbor sets to hit the shelves where I live.

I'll make sure I'll pick up this set though it looks great for it's size

Edited April 30, 2011 by The Yellow Brick

[paul_delahaye]

Summer release sets are getting earlier and earlier each year!

[Rumble Strike]

That is a very cool boat for the money. I just wish the minifig was more exciting.

[Fuzzylegobricks]

I like the hull it is really interesting, I will go check out my local one and get the harbor for a review.

[WesternOutlaw]

Nice little set for $5. I think it compliments the new theme nicely and one can always add this to the back of a trailer or to a shoreline scene. Your pictures are equally nice.

[LEGO Guy Bri]

Great review 'buddy'. Definitely gonna get one of these!

[dr_spock]

Thanks for the review. The price is low enough to get a few and have a boat race.

[lightningtiger]

Thanks 'buddy' for this review of a cute set, not much building in it but I do like it and I can see quite a few being modified into fire boats....gee, that gives me an idea !

I wonder why both this and the bigger speed boat use Octan torso's ? Perhaps with this set they should have included a tool wheel and hatch set up to store them....like a breakdown vehicle on the water. Well, boats do breakdown on the water eh ?

I now wait for the marina and harbour reviews, but so far this marine sub-theme looks okay.

Brick On everyone !

[Vindicare]

That is a very cool boat for the money. I just wish the minifig was more exciting.

Maybe he just got off work at the gas station and just couldn't wait to take his boat out. I agree, they should've used a different torso.

[Solitary Dark]

A great review for a great pocket money set - something that's been sadly lacking in the city line for a number of years (How many Police bikes can you have!)

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Very nice set and very nice review!

I like this modern curved shape

[XimenaPaulina]

Pretty good review buddy! Thanks for sharing another one. With regards to the set, it's a nice little addition to any beach town layout, but even if it's just a small set, I can't help but get a bit disappointed seeing those two new <insert that tiresome argument> parts, makes me think the designers got lazy and just made two new huge pieces instead of working with the existing parts to come up with the same speedboat design. I know it's probably due to parts-cost restriction, but I still feel the set is being too simplified way too much.

[Spike]

Thank you. Not expensive and a good "small set"

[escortmad79]

Is anyone else bored with seeing that same head all the time? I must have more of those than classic heads!

Not a bad set for the money though

[Aanchir]

Pretty good review buddy! Thanks for sharing another one. With regards to the set, it's a nice little addition to any beach town layout, but even if it's just a small set, I can't help but get a bit disappointed seeing those two new <insert that tiresome argument> parts, makes me think the designers got lazy and just made two new huge pieces instead of working with the existing parts to come up with the same speedboat design. I know it's probably due to parts-cost restriction, but I still feel the set is being too simplified way too much.

Those parts aren't new. They're from various airplane/helicopter sets from last year. I also take issue with them being called <insert that tiresome argument> (which tends to mean overspecialized). If the use of helicopter parts for a speedboat isn't proof of their versatility, I don't know what is.

Furthermore, they're not that much larger than this piece, which was used in similarly-sized speedboats during my childhood.

My main disappointment with this set, though, is that despite using fairly large pieces for its hull it doesn't look like it can float. If TLG had just found a way to seal up those holes in the underside they'd have given this an unquestionable advantage over similarly-sized speedboats of the 90s.

Great review of this awesome set.

[Legoist]

Thanks for the review!

This set is just a little more than an impulse. It looks fine as-is, but with so few pieces there is very little building value and not much reusability. It's certainly a good purchase for a small kid, but for me this time it's a 1.

[Hoexbroe]

Excellent set for the money. Definatly going to get one or two of them. Mainly because of the big red (and to some extend the white) piece, in which I see a fighter airplane of a space starfighter. -Either as a nose of the vessel, or as jet-motors on the wings...

Minifig is trivial, but it just so happens that I dont have any with the Octan logo...

[LEGO AFOL]

Not bad.

[Big Cam]

TLG has done this set at least once before in my 20 odd years of being involved with LEGO and the new mold for the front of the boat is awesome.

Thanks for a great review with some really good pictures.

[jangofett]

Hmm not a bad boat at all I will be picking a few up soon.

cheers jango

[Masked Builder]

Meh. Not the best set but still not to bad. A great review though!

[Bricknblue]

The first thing I did when I bought the set was stick it into water and it floated enough, it didn't sink. Could have used a few more pieces, but it does float to a point.

[legomaniac83]

Great review! I picked up this set on the weekend and it is the perfect little gem to add to a cityscape. Can't think of much use for the 2 bow pieces - but nice to see some new parts.

This is also $6.99 CDN.

[Plastic Nurak]

Great review.

In Brickset this set was in my wish list for a long time, but this weekend I didn't see it in Billund LEGO Shop .